Cantina
by Le1a Naberr1e
Summary: A collection of drabbles and mini-fics frequently written as birthday gifts or LJ memes.
1. Not Falling

**Notes**: AU where Anakin and Padmé do not fall. Birthday fic for my dear friend **atomic89**. Unbeta'd and a trifle haphazard.

* * *

_'It would have destroyed us.' _

'~'

She pushed the sandy hair from her face and dry skin scraped against open wound. Anakin's face was like paper, wrinkling in the heat. His sunken blue eyes were the only things that looked alive in it. The blood, for all its redness, already looked dead.

"Am I supposed to thank you for saving my life?"

"No."

They sat in identical positions: facing each other, knees pulled up to their chest, backs to the wall, wounds scarring. Their clothes were even almost identical – his Jedi robes tan and worn, the beige uni-suit she had been wearing for the past three nightmarish days, turned brown by the sandstorm.

'~'

_'We let the kisses become scars.'_

'~'

For months, she had thought him dead.

The soldiers milled around them but they might as well have been in their own world. He stood before her, blocking the sun, and for the first time, she let the tears fall.

He caught them with his finger, held her chin when she would have looked away.

The triumph she had half-expected to see was not there, only regret.

"I will not leave the Jedi."

Padmé closed her eyes against the stupid tears. "I know."

'~'

_'We would have been living a lie, one we couldn't keep even if we wanted to.' _

'~'

The night the Temple burnt, taking the last of the Sith with them, she had known he would come.

She stood in her balcony and watched his ship descend like a metallic predator. There had been no words when he swooped her into his arms, or when he carried her into the bedroom.

She was already robed and knitted into the stiff Senatorial gown when his blue eyes opened to the morning.

There were no words. She didn't tell him she had never stopped loving him and he didn't tell her he would never love anyone else.

He didn't tell her that he had almost fallen for her sake.

She never told him when she bore his children.

They kissed for the last time.

'~'

_'And so we decided not to fall in love.' _

**fin.**


	2. Collar

**Notes**: This is the first of two ficlets for my dear friend **fialleril**'s birthday. It was inspired by the Clone Wars trailer: the shot of Anakin and Ahsoka trekking across the Dune Sea.

* * *

"Then you lost the ship?"

Anakin sighed. Things would go faster if only Kitster stopped laughing.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I woke up and it was gone."

"I know, I know, it's just that I'm trying to understand how you lost a ship you fell asleep in."

Ahsoka was biting back a grin. This was intolerable.

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"Oh, what are old friends for, Annie?" Kitster said, dark eyes dancing at Anakin's reaction to the name. "Just give me a moment to savor this."

A cold suspicion filled Anakin's heart. "This is not going to end up in Tales of the Jedi, Volume 5, is it?"

A positively evil look filled Kitster's face and Anakin's heart quailed.

Ahsoka, whose eyes had never left Kitster's face, suddenly gasped. "You're Jedi Jac Sparr!!! I knew I recognized you from somewhere." Then her face turned even redder than normal and she looked at her feet.

She had got to watch holo-vids? Anakin thought, rather irrelevantly. Obi-Wan had never let him watch holo-vids for anything but the Feed!

Kitster was grinning benevolently at her. "Would you like my autograph?"

She looked up in delight, embarrassment forgotten. "Yes, please!" She said with a squeal and unwrapped her sash. Her sash! Anakin despaired of his Padawan.

At that moment she glanced up at him, and her enthusiasm faded distinctly. "That is, if I may, Master?" she asked plaintively.

He started. The 'Master' was always a shock. Now, coupled with the fact that Ahsoka was talking to him as if he were _Obi-Wan_... "Of course, you can," he said firmly.

Kitster rolled his eyes. "Of course, she can," he declared as if the matter of a Jedi Padawan making much over an Inter-galactic holo-vid star could ever be brought to question. He turned to the smiling Ahsoka. "What do you want me to write?"

"Oh anything," she said, blushing.

And with a flourish, Kitster Banai, Anakin Skywalker's oldest and dearest friend, did just that.

Later on, as they trekked across the sand dunes, Anakin read the writing on the Padawan's sash with alternating feelings of horror and amusement.

'_To Ahsoka, _

_Hope you had enjoyed your visit to Tatooine!_

_Love from Kitster Banai._

_P.S. Wearer is property of Jedi Anakin Skywalker. If found, please return to Jedi Council, Coruscant.'_

**fin**


	3. Stewing Plots

**Notes**: This is the second of two ficlets for my dear friend **fialleril**'s birthday. It's an Intertrilogy AU where Anakin does not turn.

* * *

It was difficult to explain why he missed Kitster when the holovids showed his face every day. But then again, the face on the holovid was the face of Captain Jac Sparr, Imperial pilot extraordinaire or Brahim Pitt, the dashing, but actually not very intelligent hero of the long-running romance series 'Secrets of Hills.'

The Kitster Banai who sat across the counter in the Skywalkers' kitchen, chopping veg sticks and talking sedition could not be further from an Imperial lackey or half of a pair of star-crossed lovers.

"It's hard to take the Rebellion seriously when its agent moonlights as the face of the Empire," Anakin said over the stove.

Kitster waved the knife in his hands as if he were stabbing at his detractors. "Appearances must be kept. Imperial Intelligence will never suspect that their good-looking icon is in league with the enemy."

"That good-looking icon is also the reason why a lot of young people are signing up for the Imperial Academy."

Kitster tensed, turned back to his chopping. "Captain Sparr is the reason why I get complimentary tickets to top-echelon social events, and obtain valuable intel for the Rebellion."

"You have to weigh the benefits of your cover with the downside of being a recruitment vehicle for the Empire."

Something in Anakin's voice made Kitster look up with a grin. "Wow, such eloquent rhetoric must be the result of a long discussion with Madam Naberrie – or just Madam Naberrie talking."

Anakin's eyes twinkled. "Maybe," he conceded with a small grin. Then he looked stern again. "But we agree on this. Don't laugh this off. It's something for you to think about."

"I do that every day," Kitster said with a sigh and he pushed the last of the chopped sticks into the bowl.

His friend gave him a sympathetic look and flipped the sausages.

"Dinner is served."

**fin**


	4. Second Opinion

**Notes**: A ficlet or drabble featuring C-3PO and R2-D2 shortly after the events in ESB. Written for **knight_ander** as a birthday memento. I'm terrible at droid dialogue but here goes nothing.

* * *

"Really, Artoo, I think it's disgraceful the no-talent buffoons that masquerade the galaxy, claiming to be Sentient Anatomical & Medical Android Specialists."

_Toot._

"Indeed, it's just a fancy name for a whole lot of incompetence."

_Too hoo noot. Boop. Beep too? _

"Well, I admit that it was serviceable…"

_Too too beep. _

"… and perhaps humans may not require the advanced anti-electrocution and High Speed Data transfer protocols our appendages provide…"

_Too too boop. _

"… but couldn't they have at least upgraded the finishing? Chrome-plast, dura-steel-plex or even plexi-ore would have been a much nicer covering than that biodegradable, human-flesh-colored outer covering on Master Luke's new appendage!"

_Toot. _

"Short-changing? I completely agree. Why, even you could have done a better job than those medi-droid quacks!"

_WOOT?! _

**fin**


	5. Mirror Mirror

**Notes**: "…a ficlet, anything you'd like, but something you haven't thought up of yet as you read this post. Something spontaneous…" Written for bobill as a birthday memento.

* * *

"So the prodigal returns at last."

"Did you really think I would leave my child with a monster?"

"And there I was thinking you had come to your senses."

"Your Majesty, Ruler of the Empire, you forget that of the two of us, it is I who can not afford to live in delusions."

"Did that hurt? There are few besides you who will answer truthfully."

"Why ask when you already know the answer?"

"But I don't. I don't feel your emotions anymore. We used to be two halves of the same whole but you tore our bond into shreds. Now, all I sense from you is a mirror."

"I tore our bond? So even after everything, I am still the gullible fool to you? Or have you really completely given yourself to your fantasy world?"

"So you still sense me?"

"I sense your anger. I sense your pain. I sense your desperation. I sense your madness."

"Let me know when it stops hurting."

"She told me what you did to her."

"She is my daughter. I am her-"

"It takes more than blood to make a parent. Heaven knows we learnt that the hard way. What kind of fiend does that to their own child?"

"I did it to make her stronger. The way we were taught."

"Yes, to make her stronger. Because to you that's what she is – a very unique, very powerful, very expensive weapon."

"How dare you? I love her! I loved you, you treacherous viper! Stop laughing! Stop!"

"You call me a snake. You are poison. He made you in his own image. You've never loved anything or anyone but yourself."

"Even you cannot talk and scream at the same time. You always forget, don't you, brother? You hurt me and I hurt you back. Only I do it so much better."

_**fin**_


	6. The Princess and The Bandit

**Notes**: _Before the events of A New Hope, before the events of Avatar: Book Two, Toph's family is visiting the Organas, and young Princess Leia catches Toph Earth-bending in the mountains near the palace. _X-over with Avatar, the Last Airbender. For **knight_ander**.

* * *

Leia Organa and Bei Fong Toph met during the former's Ninth Naming Day. Really met, that is. A few days before then, they had brought forward and introduced to each other but they hadn't really met in the true sense of the word.

It all happened because Princess Organa's Ninth Naming Day was also the day of her debut as a Speaking Legislator at the Royal Council Hall: her first time of formally speaking during a Royal Council meeting. She had barely slept all night in anticipation for the great moment and when she had woken up, she had been so visibly high-strung that Bail had wondered silently if she was ready. But when the moment came and the white-clad Princess stood before the Elders, flanked on both sides by members of the Bei Fong family she was representing; her face and composure had been perfectly calm as she delivered her improvised speech.

"I noticed you added a few things to the speech," Bail commented as the two families strolled back to the Royal Palace.

"Yes," Leia said carefully. "Did I displease you, sir?"

"No, Leia, the opposite as a matter of fact."

Leia was still blushing as the elder Bei Fong spoke up. "Considering how recently the Omashu invasion happened, bringing it up was strategic."

Leia stumbled a little at his last word. She was about to turn back but her father started speaking:

"You referred to recent events and brought home the point of Galactic intervention better than any speeches of the evils of the hundred year war. I just wondered what gave you the idea…?"

Preening a little and trying hard to stop herself from preening – which made it even worse – Leia tried to explain the sudden inspiration that had come to her mid-way through the speech. Bail and his friends were paying so close attention to her that they didn't notice the other nine-year-old girl slipping away.

''

"There you are! We've been looking for you everywhere!"

Toph started and the carefully constructed cocoon of rock collapsed all around her.

"What… what was that?"

"Oh, go away, won't you?" Toph snapped, scowling hard as she got to her feet, brushing the dirt off her clothes.

"No, really. How did you _do_ that?"

"Oh, you mean there's something _you_ don't know? Little Miss Grown-up?"

She could almost feel Leia Organa's face frown. "What is your problem?"

"What is _my_ problem?"

"Yes! I try to be nice to you and if our parents aren't there, you're borderline rude. I know you're the one who nearly tripped me when we were coming back from the Council Hall. What have I ever done to you?"

Toph lost it. "What have you done? What _haven't _you done? You're a Legislator to the Alderaan Council. You're an Organizer at the Refugee Relief Movement. You're an honorable member of the Earth Kingdom Elite Youths. Everywhere I go, it's Leia Organa this, Leia Organa that. We're exactly the same age but you get to do everything while they keep me in a cage like a doll! Do you know how it feels like to-"

"Stop it!"

"I won't stop! You wanted to know my problem and now you'll hear them!"

"No, I mean it. Stop! I can't move!"

Toph paused. And then her stomach jumped in alarm as she realized what she had been doing in her tirade. With each stamp of her foot, the smooth rocks of the Alderaan hill sides – uncannily similar to the ones back at home – had been rising and falling, consciously or unconsciously, around Leia.

Gingerly she stepped forward and confirmed that yes, the other girl was neatly trapped in a rough cylinder of rock.

Despite herself, Toph felt her lips twitched. It wasn't funny and she'd get into serious trouble if Leia reported to her parents, but the mental image of the prissy girl's doubtlessly bewildered and frightened face cheered her.

But she would get into trouble if her parents knew she was bending. Sighing a little, she prepared to let Leia free.

"Clearly, I have hurt your feelings without meaning to, Toph. I am sincerely sorry. Please can you let me out now?"

That did it!

"I'm not a _little _girl," she screamed. "Don't talk to me like a baby!"

"I was just being _polite_!" Leia retorted and her voice sounded like if she was forcing the words through clenched teeth.

"Well you can be polite all by yourself!" Toph snapped and stamped hard for good measure.

"Ow!"

Toph spun on her heel.

"You are _not _leaving me here!"

"Oh yeah?" Toph yelled and happily strolled off.

"Toph! Toph! Come back! Come back this moment, you Little Brat!"

"Make me!"

She was half-way down the hill when she felt them – not with her feet but the hairs on the back of her neck. She barely leaped back in the nick of time as they passed her – large, rock-sounding missiles flying past her to land in bounces on the ground before her.

She swung round, feeling for whoever had let Leia go, still trying to think who amongst her family's companions was a Bender…

…only to realize that Leia was exactly where she had left her a few seconds ago… Only completely free of her earth prison.

Toph gasped. "Are you an Earth bender, too?" She didn't know what she felt the most – delight at meeting a _human _Earthbender or dismay that Leia Organa had the one thing that made Toph better than her.

"A what?"

Toph rolled her eyes. "You don't even know what just did? What you are?"

"I just… stretched out my hands… and the rocks flew away from me…" Leia's voice was slow, wondering.

Toph scowled. "So you are a Bender. Congratulations."

She walked away as quickly as she could.

''

"I still don't know why you can't teach me a few things."

"I still don't know why you can't take no for an answer." But there was almost a smile on Toph's face as she said that and Leia thought that was a good sign.

"I'm a Princess of a pacifist state. I have to be able to negotiate in all circumstances." The reply was automatic. It was one of the first rules of state she had ever learnt.

"Well, I'm a spoilt Little Brat and I have to do what I please. Except when I can't do what I please." And that almost smile disappeared behind an impressive scowl.

Leia bit her lip. The idea had been half-forming in her mind for some days now, ever since she made up her mind to win Toph's good will and 'Bending' tutorship, but she wasn't sure she had thought it through enough to sell it to the other girl now. If she wasn't convincing enough, Toph would laugh her to pieces and Leia would lose whatever modicum of respect she had painstakingly worn from the other girl.

On the other hand, the Bei Fong family would soon be leaving Alderaan. If she didn't get Toph to train her soon, she might not get the chance again.

"So Bei Fong Toph can't do as she pleases… what if you weren't Bei Fong Toph? Could you do as you please?"

"You're not making any sense, Princess."

Toph had a way of saying Leia's title that made it sound like an insult. Not for the first time, Leia resisted the urge to smack the other girl. Hard.

"Have you ever heard of a secret identity?"

''

Celia watched the dirty girls tramping down the hill and smiled even as she wondered if they needed to get quite so dirty.

"It was good that we insisted on the Bei Fong family bringing along their little girl. I worry about Leia sometimes, that she's growing up too fast."

"She's growing up exactly the way we grew up, sister," Bail said gently.

Celia sighed. She privately believed that they _all _grew up too fast, that the galaxy as a whole made children grow up too fast, but it was an old argument and she was tired of it.

At that moment, one of the girls looked up and Bail waved. She waved back, and after a moment, so did the other.

Celia smiled. They should do this again.

Lao and Poppy exchanged smiles as they watched the two small girls approaching the vessel. Toph looked especially radiant, her delicate green-and-yellow dress glowing beside the Princess Leia's white gown.

Lao was glad he had brought her to Alderaan. He had worried when he got the Organas' request. Toph was such a different child from Princess Leia – so fragile, so innocent – and he worried that she would be overwhelmed and unhappy. To say nothing about the perils of inter-planetary travel – something that was rarely embarked upon in their world.

And at first, he had thought his suspicions were proved right and he should never have brought his daughter here. The Alderaan climate had clearly not agreed with Toph. She looked unwell, she _wilted _and Princess Leia was a charming child, but it was clear that she and Toph had very little in common.

But these past few days, something had changed. She had eventually adapted to Alderaan weather and her health had improved. She looked happier, _acted _happier. It was a testimony to Princess Leia's skill, of course, that she had managed to draw his soft-spoken, reserved daughter out of her shell and make her laugh on occasion.

The two girls said their farewells and he caught Poppy's eyes again. They were dancing and he knew she was thinking the exact same thing he was:

_We should do this again._

''

"Good bye Princess Leia."

"Good bye –" Princess Leia coughed and Toph patted her back consolingly, only just managing to muffle her own giggles.

Later on the ship, she laughed at what Leia had called her and hugged herself tightly. Life was about to become very interesting.

''

In the end, Leia hadn't taken to Bending very well after all. At the end of her short apprenticeship, she could _just_ manage to fling back small bits of rock when Toph threw them at her. But she hadn't been able to move the rocks _out of_ the ground as Toph did so flawlessly: A skill that Toph repeatedly reminded Leia was the most fundamental aspect of bending.

Still, she had learnt that she was completely averse to going barefoot and like her father said, every bit of self-awareness was useful.

Leia watched the ship vanish through the clouds and her grin broadened, imagining the adventures Toph – no, the Blind Bandit – was going to embark on.

_the end_


End file.
